Method of preparing soles for boots or shoes.



O. G. SMALL METHOD OF PREPARING SOLES FOR BOOTS 0R SHOES.

APPLIOATION rum) r1112. 12, 1913.

1,061,416 Patented May13,1913.

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METHOD OF PREPARING SOLES FOR BOOTS 0R SHOES.

APPLICATION FILED P111312 1.913.

Patented May 13, 1913.

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%i WM W C. G. SMALL METHOD OF PREPARING SOLES FOR BOOTS 0R SHOES.

APPLICATION rum 11113.12, 1913.

1,061,416. Patented May 13, 1913.

3 SHEETSSHBET 3 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

CHESTER c. SMALL, or NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR To UNITED SHOE MACHINERY COMPANY, or IATERSON, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION or NEW JERSEY.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 13, 1913.

Application filed February 12, 1913. Serial No. 747,951.

To all whomit may concern:

Be it known that I, CHESTER C. SMALL, a citizen. of the United States, residing at Newton, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented cer- 'ful commercially because the article produced was substantially thinner than the original blank. The reduction 1n thickness in the interior of the sole is ot no consequence, but the substantial and synu'netrical appearance of a shoe depends to a large ex; tent upon the thickness of the solo at its edges so that any sacrifice of thickness at been the practice to gage soles of a given quality, and to determine their commercial value,entirely by the thickness of the edges in the forepart. This thickness of the edges is measuredun irons; a difference in thickness of one iron, 2'. e. of an inch, between two soles of medlum slzc and quality, represents a ditlerence in market value of from three to four cents a pair.

I havedisc'overed a method by which, for the first-time, it is possible to impart to soles the many advantages secured by compressing, without any attendant disadvantages. By this method pressure is applied to the faces of a sole blank in suchmanncr that the interior wear resisting portion of the blank peceives the maximum amount of pressure, which is preferably sufficient to condense and harden that portion of the sole and, in the manner of practising the method her inafter described, to reduce it somewhat in .t iickness; while substantial reduction, or any reduction, in the thickness of the edges is avoided. I prefer so to apply the pressure as to form a marginal portion thicker than the interior and of substantial width, so that there may .be cut from blanks of one shape soles of a variety of contours all having marginal portions thicker than their interior portions and preferably of such width that channels may be formed in said thickermarginal portions. I also contemplate making the thick marginal portion wider at the part where the greatest variation inthe shapes of the soles is likely to occur. This is usually at the toe.

1n the preferred manner of practising the invention the pressure which is exerted upon the marginal portion is progressively less from the outer boundary of the interior portion toward the edge of the sole, where the reduction in thickness, if any, is negligible, and the pressure is applied in such manner that the face of the grain side of the compressed solc, and preferably also the face of the flesh side, is smooth and unbroken by any shoulder or sharp line of demarcation between the interim and marginal portions. Preferably also the erflgcs ot' the sole blank are confined during the application of pi-essure to its faces and this prevents spreading of the solo by the pressure exerted upon its faces and contributes generally to the ellicacy of the method. To secure the best re sults I prefer, as steps in the method, to upset the stock at the edges of the sole and to mold the upset stock by the pressure exerted upon the faces of the marginal portion.

It should be understood that in the practime of my invention. pressure may be applied to the faces of a sole throughout their entire areas or, if desired, pressure may be exerted upon only a part of the sole as, for example, the forepart... When compressing a part only, it is preferable so to apply the pressure that the faces of the compressed portion shall mergc'gradually into the faces of the uncompressed portion, thereby avoiding an abrupt shoulder or any noticeable line of demarcation, which would be particu larly objectionable on the grain side of the sole.

The sole-prmluced by my method, when practised in the preferred manner, has in its interior wear receiving portion all the ad vantages imparted by great pressure and its marginal portion has received sufficient pressure to improve .it materially while the thickness of the edge is not reduced substantially, if at all; and the faces of the interior and marginal portions are substantially continuous and smooth so that the difference in thickness is not noticeable. I prefer 1n the practice of my method to perform all the steps necessary or useful to produce such a product but it should be understood that one or more of the steps may be omitted without departing from the invention, the scope of which is limited only definedin the claims.

The improved sole which is produced by the practice of my novel method is not here in claimed but is made the subject-matter of my pending application for Letters Patent of the United States, Serial No. 732,703, filed November 21, 1912.

In the drawings :-F igure 1 is a perspective View of a sole blank cut from a poor grade of leather which may be transformed into an improved sole by the method constituting the present invention; Fig. 2 is a perspective View of a sole after it has been improved by this method; Fig. 3 is a perspective View showing a mold comprising dies which may be employed in carrying out the method. The dies are shown in initial open position; Fig. 4 is a sectional view of the mold taken in the plane 44 of Fig. 3,

showing upon a larger-scale by dotted lines the'sole blank before it has been compressed and by full lines the dies and the blank in their relative positions at the time of final compression; Fig. 5 is a view similar to Fig. 2 showing the sole produced by a modification of the method; and Fig. 6 is a view similar to Fig. 3 showing dies suitable for carrying out the-modified method.

A sole blank which may be greatly improved by treating it in accordance with my novel method is shown in Fig. 1. While the advantages of the method are by no means limited to its practice upon sole blanks of the poorer grades of leather, the' improvement effected by it is more striking in that class of work and I have accordingly shown in'that figure a sole blank of a very poor grade of leather which is warped, defaced on its grain side, of uneven thickness at its .edges and otherwise unsatisfactory for use them up and allowing some hours.

In Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings is shown a mold comprising face and edge dies which I have used in the practice of my method. Fig. 3 shows the mold open. In using it to practise my method the sole is placed on them to stand for the lower face die 8, the edge dies 4 and 6 marginal portion of at least one of the face dies should be cut-away. Preferably the face of the marginal portion 12 should merge gradually into the face of the interior portion of the die and I prefer also to bevel both of the face dies in this. manner, as shown in the drawings. The depth of the bevel at the extreme edge measured from the plane of the flat interior portion is approximately 0.12 of an inch on each die and the width ofthe beveled margin varies from gof an inch to 1% inches. The margin is made of substantial width in order that the sole produced by the method shall have an edge thicker than its interiorportion after the rounding and trimming operations and the maximum width of the beveled margin of the die is so located as to furnish a thicker margin of maximum width on that.portion of the sole where the most stock is removed in the rounding operation. This is generally at the toe and the dies are shown as having the bevel of maximum width at the toe portions.

v It is desirable to cut the sole blankslightly larger than the mold around the forepart, as shown by dotted lines 9 in Fig. 4. It is my practice to cut the sole about of an inch larger all. around the forepart, this excess of size being gradually reduced along the shank and disappearing at the wide part of the heel seat. This excess material is forced inwardly by the side dies and is molded by the face dies, thus contributing to the securing of the desired thickness in the marginal portion of the blank. I

Referring to Fig. 3, it will be noted that since the edge dies in closing move directly toward each other, they will in this type of mold exertpract-ically -no inward pressure upon the edges of the blank adjacent to their inner corners 5, 7 and thus do not provide in that region any upset edge material to be molded into the margin. I find, however, that in the sole produced by my method the edge of the marginal portion of the toe has substantially the same density as the marginal edges on the sides and experiments have shown that under the very heavy pressure exerted by the face dies the stock in the forepart in the region indicated by the arrows in Fig. 3 is forced toward the toe, thus contributing stock from that region to the thicker margin at the toe. lVhile this movement of the stock is slight, it is usually discernible and seems to eontrilnite materially to the desired result at the toe.

The amount of pressure which is required in the practice of my metluiwl varies consizt erably according to the condition and quality of the stock and the size of the sole blank. In order to obtain all the :tulmntages secured by practising the method in the preferred manner the pressure should be suiticient to render the interior portion of the sole very hard and dense, to make the marginal portion firm and to impart a smooth, hard surface to the entire grain side of the sole. An operator quickly learns to determine from the appearance of the compressed blank Whether suttieicnt pressure is being applied.

The preferred manner of practising the invention is illustrated in Fig. t in which the outline of the original blank is indicated by dotted lines and the product of the method is shown in section in the closed molds. It will be observed that the greatest pressure is exerted upon the interior portion of the sole, while, owing to the beveled margins on the face dies, the pressure exerted upon the margin of the sole is progressively less from the boundary of the interior portion toward the edge of the sole where the thickness of the product is shown as substantially the same as that of the original blank. In Fig. 2 represented the sole produced by treatment, according to my method, of the sole shown in Fig. 1. The wide margin is indicated by shading which shows the maximum width at the toe. In the rounding operation a variety of shapes of soles may be cut from this blank, one of these shapes being indicated by the broken line 16 and it will be observed that when the sole is rounded on this line there will still be left a margin of substantial width and of greater thickness than the interior portion. The margin left after the rounding operation will usually be wide enough so that the channel formed to receive the thread or other sole fastening means will be within the margin. This is of advanta e because it is necessary that the portions the sole 0 erated upon be thoroughly tempered for t e rounding and chan- 'nel1ng operations and as the margin of the sole is less dense than the interior it will ab sorb water more readily.

I prefer so to practise my method as to improve the entire, sole drat least all of it which'is' to be visible in the finislwd shoe, including the shank, but it may be desired to p5 treat the forepart only, since the shank per-- I l i tion receives practically no wear and the heel seat portion is covered by the heel. Dies adapted for applying pressure in accordance with my method to the forepart only are shown in Fig. 6 and a sole compressed by these dies is shown in Fig. 5. When the forepart only is compressed, it is i'lesiraijile that the operation shall be so performed as not to form a line or ridge in the region between the compressed and uncompressed portions and this is especially important as regards the grain side of the sole. it is preferable, therefore, when practising the method in this manner, so to apply pressure as to merge gradually the surfaces of the miron'ipressed and compressed portions of the sole. l have accmnplished this by using face dies it") which are gradually beveled oil at 18 so that the sole compressed by them will hate the compressed face of its torepart 22 and the uncompressed face of ti i shank portion 24- connected by the portion as which merges gradually into both of the said faces. The rear corners of the edge dies are also rounded at 28, 28 to revent the formation of marks upon the edges of the sole.

rilthough in both pairs of face dies herein shown and described each die is formed with a. beveled margin, it is not essential that the 5 marginal portions of both face dies be cut away, as one of the dies may be flat While the marginal portion of the other may be cut away sutticiently to secure the desired result. Advant ges of having both the face dies 100 beycled, as herein illustrated, arev that in their use no tendency to warp is imparted to the sole, and the same mold may be used for both rights and lofts.

While in the preferred manner of prac- 105 tising my method, as above set forth, very great pressure is exerted upon the interior portion. of the blank, hardening and con- (lensing it, and pressure is so exerted upon the marginal portion that the edges of the 11 compressed sole shall be of substantially the Stlll'ltltlllGlGIBSS as the edges of the original blank; I desire it to be understood that it is within my invention so to apply pressure to the blank that the marginal portion will be 11: made thicker than the marginal portion of the original blank. To accomplish this, the marginal portion of one or both of the face dies may be cut away to a greater depth below the plane of the interior face than in the dies above described; or, using a mold such as is herein show'nand described, and cutting the sole blank slightly larger than the mold, less pressure may be exerted through the face (lies, so that the edges which are upset and thickened by the side dies will not receive enough :t'aee pro. are to reduce them to' their original thickiu or, using either of these lyptz-l el face dies, the sole blanks may be cut with a greater excess width than is 1 30 above suggested, to aii'ord additional stock to beupset and molded into a thicker mar It is my practice to cut sole blanks which are to be improved by my method of such shapes that avariety of shapes of soles may be cut from each blank in the sole rounding operation and this practice is advantageous in that it'efi'ects a great saving in the cost of the cutting dies required to die out the sble blanks and the compressing molds for treating them in accordance with my method. It should be understood, however, that my invention is not limited to compression of a sole blank before the rounding operation, and further, that the method may advantageously be practised in improving what is variously termed a tap slip sole or half sole. The terms sole and sole blank as used in the specification and claims, should be construed accordingly.

Having explained the nature of my invention and set forth fully how it may be practised, what I claim as new and'desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. The method of improving sole blanks for boots or shoes which comprises applying to the faces of a blank pressure which reduces substantially the thickness of the interior portion of the blank and which reduces the thickness of the marginal portion of the blank by an amount diminishing from a maximum at the inner boundary of the margin to a negligible amount at the outer edge of the blank. I

2. The method of improving sole blanks for boots or shoes which consists in forcing the edges of a. blank inwardly by pressure and then, while the edges are confined, applyingto the faces of the blank pressure which reduces substantially the thickness of are held confined, and, during the opera-- tion upon the interior portion, exerting presthe interior portion of the blank and which reduces the thickness of the marginal-portion of the blank by an amount diminishing from a maximum at the inner boundary of the margin to a negligible amount at' the outer edge of the blank.

3. The method of improving sole blanks for boots or shoes which comprises exerting thickness reducing pressure upon the faces of the interior portion of the forepart of a sole blank while confining the edges of the blank and exerting substantially less pressure upon the faces of the marginal portion between the outer boundary of the interior portion and the edge of the sole.

4. The method of preparing soles for hoots or shoes which consists in confining the edges of a sole blank, exerting thickness reducing pressure upon the faces of the interior portion of the blank while the edges sure progressively lrom the outer boundary of the interior port-ion toward the edge of the sole.

5. The method of preparing soles for boots or shoes which consists in forcing inwardly the edges of a sole blank, applying thickness-reducing-- pressure to the interior portion of the blank and applying to the marginal portion of the blank pressure which is progressively less from the boundaries of said interior portion toward the edges of the blank, where it is not suflicient to reducethe thickness, thereby producing a condensed sole having its interior portion thinner than that of the original blank but having its edges of approximately nal blank.

6. The method of preparing soles for boots or shoes which consists in forcing inwardly the edges of a sole blank and applying to its opposite faces pressure which isgreatest on the interior portion of the blank and which merges into a less degree of pressure on the marginal portion of the blank.

7. The method of preparing sole blanks for boots or shoes by subjecting them to pressure which includes upsetting the edges of the torepart of a blank and applying pressure to the faces of the forepart, in-

cluding its marginal portion, in such manner as to mold the upset edge portion of the same thickness as the edges of the origithe stock to produce a marginal portion confining its edges, in such manner as toproduce a sole blank having a marginal portion of greater thickness than its interior portion and of substantial width to permit shaping said sole blank by cutting it on a line lying within said thicker marginal portion. I P

10. The method of preparing soles "for boots or shoes which comprises applying pressure to the 'forepart of a sole blank in such manner as to produce a sole blankhaving in its forepart a marginal portion of substantial width and of greater thickness than the interior portion, with the facesof said marginal and interior portions forming a. substantially continuous and unbroken surface on' each side of the blank, whereby said blank may be shaped by cutting it on a line lying within said thicker marginal portion.

11. The method of inn iroving sole blanks for boots or shoes which comprises mini-ting, ilpon the faces o'li' a Sole blank pi. sasure which reduces substantially the thickness of the interior oi, the forward portion of the blank, reduces the thickness of the margin of the forward portion by an amount (liminishinn' l'roin a maximum at the inner boundary of the margin to a negligible amount at the outer edge of the blank, and reduces the thickn of the part of the blank connecting" the thinner interior of said forward portion and the rear portion ol the blank by an amount diminishing gradually from a maximum at the forward houi'ulary of said connectinp part to nothing at the rear lnnindany ol said connecting part.

The method of preparing soles for boats or shoes which comprises applying pressure to the faces of the forepart of a blank, including the marginal .portion, while contlninp its edges, in such manner as to produce a sole blank having a marginal portion of greater thickness than its interior portion and of substantial width to permit shaping said sole blank by cutting iton a line lying within saidthicker marginal porlion and forming a channel in said thicker marginal portion.

13. The method of preparing soles for boots or shoes which comprises upsetting the side edges of a sole blank, forcing stock from the interior of the forepart of the blank toward the toe, and molding the entire margin of the. forepart by pressure wzertecl upon its faces.

1.4. The method of preparing soles for boots or shoes which comprises forcing inwardly the side edges of the forepart of a sole, blank, exerting upon the interior of the torepart oi the blank sutlicient/ pressure to force stock from said interior toward the toe, and progressively exerting pressure upon the faces of the entire margin of the forepart froni the inner boundary to the outer boundary of said margin.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence ol" two subscribing witnesses.

CHESTER C. SMALL.

Witnesses James O. \Vurerrr, lVnJmm B. KING. 

